


A Ruse By Any Other Name

by soufflegirl91



Series: Souffle's 007 Fest 2020 Fancreations [15]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Humour, R is regretting her life choices, and wishes everyone would stop asking her, the mystery of Q's name
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:48:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25149472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soufflegirl91/pseuds/soufflegirl91
Summary: The mystery of Q’s name had started mostly by accident.
Series: Souffle's 007 Fest 2020 Fancreations [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1809892
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33
Collections: 007 Fest Fancreations





	A Ruse By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MrKsan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrKsan/gifts).



> For Character of Colour day, and in honour of KSAN’S AMAZING RANI ARTWORK over on tumblr @starrboned-art. Also for the Trope prompt table prompt “the mystery of Q’s name” 
> 
> A follow up to Glitterbomb.

The mystery of Q’s name had started mostly by accident. 

He’d been working for GCHQ when the old Quartermaster retired, and had been planning a transition period with Boothroyd’s previous R showing him the ropes while he trained his own replacement. Unfortunately, he had found his notice period cut short when Silva had decided to blow up his new workplace, and the old Q’s second-in-command with it. Things had been in such a state of flux, what with the only person who had been briefed on the new Q  _ dying _ and all, that Q had never had time for formal introductions. He hit the ground running, and by the time they all had time to breathe, he was just  _ Q. _

His name wasn’t even  _ redacted _ , it was just that no one had remembered to look. 

And when Rani had come along to take up the vacant second-in-command position, well... it hadn’t taken long for people to realise that she and Q went  _ way _ back. Surely, she must know the Forbidden Knowledge That Was Not Actually Forbidden, Everyone Was Just Lazy. Yes, that was the official terminology. 

And then they just. Kept. Asking. 

“How about Albert? He looks like he could be an Albert?” 

“No.”

“Freddie?” 

“Nope.”

“Robert?”

“No! Now can we  _ please  _ get back to the mission briefing, 004?”

She had brought this on herself. She and Q had actually talked it over once, when the Skyfall clusterfuck had finally blown over and people had started asking about Q’s name. Q had suggested sending a department-wide email out to formally introduce himself.  _ Rani _ had been the one to suggest keeping it a ‘secret’ until people realised they could just check in the org chart on the intranet. 

What was she  _ thinking?! _ No one ever checked the intranet!  _ She _ never checked the intranet!

“Ok, ok, fine! But what about Demetrius? He looks like he could have literary snob parents.” 

“Oh, for the love of dogs,  _ no!” _ R groaned, burying her hands in her hijab to stop herself from physically throttling 004. Just because Agent Cho wasn’t capable of using her  _ brain _ , didn’t mean she deserved to die. Yet. She just might find herself pushed to the top of Rani’s list of agents to humiliate next time they put their foot in it too deeply. Honestly, it was like they had learned  _ nothing _ from the glitterbomb incident. 

Demetrius, though. That was a new one. She might even have to tell Q that one. They kept a list of the more ridiculous suggestions to use as aliases for annoying agents. 

Amazingly, no one had ever guessed his real name, yet. It wasn’t like it was particularly uncommon, either. R suspected that Trevelyan and Bond knew, because they never seemed to play “pin the name on the Quartermaster.” That, or they were just content to call their lover by his work title. 

Rani hoped not. That was  _ weird,  _ even for double-ohs _. _

Thankfully, the rest of the briefing passed without a hitch. Until Cho had picked up her gun and earpiece and was heading to the door, that was. 

“I think he looks like an Engelbert, don’t you?”


End file.
